Paint's Journal 2
Paint was in so much trouble. He watched as Captain Jack Raptor gesticulated wildly, cursing under his breath as he was goading some sort of machinery to work. In one of Captain Raptor's massive cyberhands was a bottle of liquid. It was supposed to be water. Captain Raptor yelled at Paint an hour ago to fetch something to drink. In his haste to get the bottle, Paint forgot to check the contents of the bottle. He handed the bottle over to Captain Jack with the pride and joy of a servant doing a job well done, until he looked with horror that the bottle in Captain Raptor's gigantic grip was none other than the "local flavor". He wasn't entirely sure what it was, but the last time the rest of the gang had some of it, they were in the privy for the entire day. They've kept it around because it apparently worked fairly well to combat the devil rat problem they had on occasion. The rats would drink the stuff right up. A few days later, there were many dead devil rats in the hold. Whatever it was, it wasn't rat poison. The devil rats were immune to rat poison anyway. It was pure evil in a bottle. Fortunately, at the moment, Captain Raptor was too busy figuring out the coin minting mini-facility and some of the basic electronics of the ship to notice. He still was clutching the bottle, though, and he clearly was in a mind to drink some of it. Paint tried to fast talk with the Captain, so he can take it back and fetch a proper bottle of water, until he remembered that there practically was no proper water in Lagos, so he had none to fetch. His inquiries lead to Captain Jack saying "What, you want some of this drink, boy?" Paint shook his head vigorously in response, to which Captain Jack said, "Hah! Get your own bottle, you scurvy git." "You know, Paint, all of this coin-making is good and all. We are minting Raptor Bucks at a good clip. There were even some local folks that said it was useful. Of course, I think they were using it to prop up uneven legs of their tables at the time, but it's a start." Captain Jack looked contemplatively over the edge of the deck, his forearms resting on the rail. Paint thought "If only I could just reach out and have him drop the bottle... oh god, he's taking a sip." Captain Raptor's face was unreadable after drinking the swill. He then moved his mouth, but not in a sour motion. Looking down at the bottle, then at Paint, he finally said something. "Hmm. This is terrible. I mean, really bad. Is this the local water?" Paint couldn't think of a response. He looked at the Captain and said hopefully, "Yes?" Captain Raptor quickly straightened up, tossing the bottle on the deck. It clattered, spilling the acidic contents all over. "I know what we'll do! We'll purify the water! And people can buy it... with RAPTOR BUCKS! Paint, you're a genius!" Paint beamed and then looked hopeful again saying, "Err, yes?" He thought to himself, "I'm a genius alright. I'm so smart, I don't know how smart I am!"